<html>
<head><title>The Makeheaders Program</title></head>
<body bgcolor=white>
<h1 align=center>The Makeheaders Program</h1>


<p>
This document describes <em>makeheaders</em>,
a tool that automatically generates &#8220;<code>.h</code>&#8221;
files for a C or C++ programming project.
</p>


<h2>Table Of Contents</h2>

<ul>
<li><a href="#H0002">1,0 Background</a>
<ul>
<li><a href="#H0003">1.1 Problems With The Traditional Approach</a>

<li><a href="#H0004">1.2 The Makeheaders Solution</a>
</ul>
<li><a href="#H0005">2.0 Running The Makeheaders Program</a>

<li><a href="#H0006">3.0 Preparing Source Files For Use With Makeheaders</a>
<ul>
<li><a href="#H0007">3.1 The Basic Setup</a>

<li><a href="#H0008">3.2 What Declarations Get Copied</a>

<li><a href="#H0009">3.3 How To Avoid Having To Write Any Header Files</a>

<li><a href="#H0010">3.4 Designating Declarations For Export</a>

<li><a href="#H0011">3.5 Local declarations processed by makeheaders</a>

<li><a href="#H0012">3.6 Using Makeheaders With C++ Code</a>

<li><a href="#H0013">3.7 Conditional Compilation</a>

<li><a href="#H0014">3.8 Caveats</a>
</ul>
<li><a href="#H0015">4.0 Using Makeheaders To Generate Documentation</a>

<li><a href="#H0016">5.0 Compiling The Makeheaders Program</a>

<li><a href="#H0017">6.0 History</a>

<li><a href="#H0018">7.0 Summary And Conclusion</a>
</ul><a name="H0002"></a>
<h2>1.0 Background</h2>

<p>
A piece of C source code can be one of two things:
a <em>declaration</em> or a <em>definition</em>.
A declaration is source text that gives information to the
compiler but doesn't directly result in any code being generated.
A definition is source text that results in executable machine
instructions or initialization data.
(These two terms are sometimes used inconsistently by other authors.
In particular, many people reverse the meanings of these words when
discussing Pascal or Ada code.
The meanings described here are the same as used in the ANSI-C
standards document.)
</p>

<p>
Declarations in C include things such as the following:
<ul>
<li> Typedefs.
<li> Structure, union and enumeration declarations.
<li> Function and procedure prototypes.
<li> Preprocessor macros and #defines.
<li> &#8220;<code>extern</code>&#8221; variable declarations.
</ul>
</p>

<p>
Definitions in C, on the other hand, include these kinds of things:
<ul>
<li> Variable definitions.
<li> The bodies of functions and procedures.
<li> Initialization data.
</ul>
</p>

<p>
The distinction between a declaration and a definition is common in
modern software engineering.
Another way of looking at the difference is that the declaration
is the <em>interface</em> and the definition is the <em>implementation</em>.
</p>

<p>
In C programs, it has always been the tradition that declarations are
put in files with the &#8220;<code>.h</code>&#8221; suffix and definitions are
placed in &#8220;<code>.c</code>&#8221; files.
The .c files contain &#8220;<code>#include</code>&#8221; preprocessor statements
that cause the contents of .h files to be included as part of the
source code when the .c file is compiled.
In this way, the .h files define the interface to a subsystem and
the .c files define how the subsystem is implemented.
</p>

<a name="H0003"></a>
<h3>1.1 Problems With The Traditional Approach</h3>

<p>
As the art of computer programming continues to advance, and the size
and complexity of programs continues to swell, the traditional C
approach of placing declarations and definitions in separate files begins
to present the programmer with logistics and
maintenance problems.
To wit:
</p>

<p>
<ol>
<p><li>
In large codes with many source files, it becomes difficult to determine
which .h files should be included in which .c files.
<p><li>
It is typically the case that a .h file will be forced to include
another .h files, which in turn might include other .h files,
and so forth.
The .c file must be recompiled when any of the .h files in this chain
are altered, but it can be difficult to determine what .h files are found
in the include chain.
A frequent Makefile error is to omit some .h files from a dependency
list even though those files are on the include file chain.
<p><li>
Some information is common to both the declaration and the definition of
an object in C, and so must be repeated in both the .h and the .c files
for that object.
In a large project, it can become increasingly difficult to keep the two
files in sync.
<p><li>
When a .c file includes a .h file and the .h files changes, the .c file
must be recompiled, even if the part of the .h file that changed is not
actually used by the .c file.
In a large program, it is generally the case that almost every .c file ends up
depending on one or two of the more important .h files, and so when those .h
files change, the entire program must be recompiled.
It also happens that those important .h files tend to be the ones that
change most frequently.
This means that the entire program must be recompiled frequently,
leading to a lengthy modify-compile-test cycle and a corresponding
decrease in programmer productivity.
<p><li>
The C programming language requires that declarations depending upon
each other must occur in a particular order.
In a program with complex, interwoven data structures, the correct
declaration order can become very difficult to determine manually,
especially when the declarations involved are spread out over several
files.
</ol>
</p>

<a name="H0004"></a>
<h3>1.2 The Makeheaders Solution</h3>

<p>
The makeheaders program is designed to ameliorate the problems associated
with the traditional C programming model by automatically generating
the interface information in the .h files from
interface information contained in other .h files and
from implementation information in the .c files.
When the makeheaders program is run, it scans the source
files for a project,
then generates a series of new .h files, one for each .c file.
The generated .h files contain exactly those declarations required by the
corresponding .c files, no more and no less.
</p>

<p>
The makeheaders programming model overcomes all of the objections to the
traditional C programming model.
<ol>
<p><li>
Because all declarations needed by a .c file are contained in a
single .h file, there is never any question about what .h files
a .c will need to include.  If the .c file is named
<code>alpha.c</code> then it must include only the single .h file
named <code>alpha.h</code>.
(The .c file might also use some include files from the standard
library, such as <code>&lt;stdio.h&gt</code>, but that is another matter.)
<p><li>
The generated .h files do not include other .h files, and so there
are no include chains to worry about.
The file <code>alpha.c</code> depends on <code>alpha.h</code> and
nothing more.
<p><li>
There is still duplication in the .h and the .c file, but because
the duplicate information is automatically generated, it is no longer
a problem.
Simply rerun makeheaders to resynchronize everything.
<p><li>
The generated .h file contains the minimal set of declarations needed
by the .c file.
This means that when something changes, a minimal amount of recompilation
is required to produce an updated executable.
Experience has shown that this gives a dramatic improvement
in programmer productivity by facilitating a rapid modify-compile-test
cycle during development.
<p><li>
The makeheaders program automatically sorts declarations into the
correct order, completely eliminating the wearisome and error-prone
task of sorting declarations by hand.
</ol>
<p>

<p>
In addition, the makeheaders program is fast and unintrusive.
It is a simple matter to incorporate makeheaders into a Makefile
so that makeheaders will be run automatically whenever the project
is rebuilt.
And the burden of running makeheaders is light.
It will easily process tens of thousands of lines of source
code per second.
</p>

<a name="H0005"></a>
<h2>2.0 Running The Makeheaders Program</h2>

<p>
The makeheaders program is very easy to run.
If you have a collection of C source code and include files in the working
directory, then you can run makeheaders to generate appropriate .h
files using the following command:
<pre>
   makeheaders *.[ch]
</pre>
That's really all there is to it!
This command will generate one .h file for every .c file.
Any .h files that were generated by a prior run of makeheaders
are ignored,
but manually entered .h files
that contain structure declarations and so forth will be scanned and
the declarations will be copied into the generated .h files as
appropriate.
But if makeheaders sees that the .h file that it has generated is no
different from the .h file it generated last time, it doesn't update
the file.
This prevents the corresponding .c files from having to
be needlessly recompiled.
</p>

<p>
There are several options to the makeheaders program that can
be used to alter its behavior.
The default behavior is to write a single .h file for each .c file and
to give the .h file the same base name as the .c file.
Instead of generating a whole mess of .h files, you can, if you choose,
generate a single big .h file that contains all declarations needed
by all the .c files.  Do this using the -h option to makeheaders.
As follows:
<pre>
   makeheaders -h *.[ch] >common.h
</pre>
With the -h option, the .h file is not actually written to a disk file but
instead appears on standard output, where you are free to redirect it
into the file of your choice.
</p>

<p>
A similar option is -H.  Like the lower-case -h option, big -H
generates a single include file on standard output.  But unlike
small -h, the big -H only emits prototypes and declarations that
have been designated as &#8220;exportable&#8221;.
The idea is that -H will generate an include file that defines
the interface to a library.
More will be said about this in section 3.4.
</p>

<p>
Sometimes you want the base name of the .c file and the .h file to
be different.
For example, suppose you want the include file for <code>alpha.c</code>
to be called <code>beta.h</code>.
In this case, you would invoke makeheaders as follows:
<pre>
   makeheaders alpha.c:beta.h
</pre>
Any time a filename argument contains a colon, the name before the
colon is taken to be the name of the .c file and the name after the
colon is taken to be the name of the .h file.
You can't use the shell's wildcard mechanism with this approach, but that
normally isn't a problem in Makefiles, which is where this stuff
comes in handy.
</p>

<p>
If you want a particular file to be scanned by makeheaders but you
don't want makeheaders to generate a header file for that file,
then you can supply an empty header filename, like this:
<pre>
   makeheaders alpha.c beta.c gamma.c:
</pre>
In this example, makeheaders will scan the three files named
&#8220;<code>alpha.c</code>&#8221;,
&#8220;<code>beta.c</code>&#8221; and
&#8220;<code>gamma.c</code>&#8221;
but because of the colon on the end of third filename
it will only generate headers for the first two files.
Unfortunately,
it is not possible to get makeheaders to process any file whose
name contains a colon.
</p>

<p>
In a large project, the length of the command line for makeheaders
can become very long.
If the operating system doesn't support long command lines
(example: DOS and Win32) you may not be able to list all of the
input files in the space available.
In that case, you can use the &#8220;<code>-f</code>&#8221; option followed
by the name of a file to cause makeheaders to read command line
options and filename from the file instead of from the command line.
For example, you might prepare a file named &#8220;<code>mkhdr.dat</code>&#8221;
that contains text like this:
<pre>
  src/alpha.c:hdr/alpha.h
  src/beta.c:hdr/beta.h
  src/gamma.c:hdr/gamma.h
  ...
</pre>
Then invoke makeheaders as follows:
<pre>
  makeheaders -f mkhdr.dat
</pre>
</p>

<p>
The &#8220;<code>-local</code>&#8221; option causes makeheaders to
generate of prototypes for &#8220;<code>static</code>&#8221; functions and
procedures.
Such prototypes are normally omitted.
</p>

<p>
Finally, makeheaders also includes a &#8220;<code>-doc</code>&#8221; option.
This command line option prevents makeheaders from generating any
headers at all.
Instead, makeheaders will write to standard output
information about every definition and declaration that it encounters
in its scan of source files.
The information output includes the type of the definition or
declaration and any comment that precedes the definition or
declaration.
The output is in a format that can be easily parsed, and is
intended to be read by another program that will generate
documentation about the program.
We'll talk more about this feature later.
</p>

<p>
If you forget what command line options are available, or forget
their exact name, you can invoke makeheaders using an unknown
command line option (like &#8220;<code>--help</code>&#8221; or
&#8220;<code>-?</code>&#8221;)
and it will print a summary of the available options on standard
error.
If you need to process a file whose name begins with
&#8220;<code>-</code>&#8221;,
you can prepend a &#8220;<code>./</code>&#8221; to its name in order to get it
accepted by the command line parser.
Or, you can insert the special option &#8220;<code>--</code>&#8221; on the
command line to cause all subsequent command line arguments to be treated as
filenames even if their names begin with &#8220;<code>-</code>&#8221;.
</p>

<a name="H0006"></a>
<h2>3.0 Preparing Source Files For Use With Makeheaders</h2>

<p>
Very little has to be done to prepare source files for use with
makeheaders since makeheaders will read and understand ordinary
C code.
But it is important that you structure your files in a way that
makes sense in the makeheaders context.
This section will describe several typical uses of makeheaders.
</p>

<a name="H0007"></a>
<h3>3.1 The Basic Setup</h3>

<p>
The simplest way to use makeheaders is to put all definitions in
one or more .c files and all structure and type declarations in
separate .h files.
The only restriction is that you should take care to chose basenames
for your .h files that are different from the basenames for your
.c files.
Recall that if your .c file is named (for example)
&#8220;<code>alpha.c</code>&#8221;
makeheaders will attempt to generate a corresponding header file
named &#8220;<code>alpha.h</code>&#8221;.
For that reason, you don't want to use that name for
any of the .h files you write since that will prevent makeheaders
from generating the .h file automatically.
</p>

<p>
The structure of a .c file intended for use with makeheaders is very
simple.
All you have to do is add a single &#8220;<code>#include</code>&#8221; to the
top of the file that sources the header file that makeheaders will generate.
Hence, the beginning of a source file named &#8220;<code>alpha.c</code>&#8221;
might look something like this:
</p>

<pre>
   /*
    * Introductory comment...
    */
   #include "alpha.h"

   /* The rest of your code... */
</pre>

<p>
Your manually generated header files require no special attention at all.
Code them as you normally would.
However, makeheaders will work better if you omit the
&#8220;<code>#if</code>&#8221; statements people often put around the outside of
header files that prevent the files from being included more than once.
For example, to create a header file named &#8220;<code>beta.h</code>&#8221;,
many people will habitually write the following:

<pre>
   #ifndef BETA_H
   #define BETA_H

   /* declarations for beta.h go here */

   #endif
</pre>

You can forego this cleverness with makeheaders.
Remember that the header files you write will never really be
included by any C code.
Instead, makeheaders will scan your header files to extract only
those declarations that are needed by individual .c files and then
copy those declarations to the .h files corresponding to the .c files.
Hence, the &#8220;<code>#if</code>&#8221; wrapper serves no useful purpose.
But it does make makeheaders work harder, forcing it to put
the statements

<pre>
   #if !defined(BETA_H)
   #endif
</pre>

around every declaration that it copies out of your header file.
No ill effect should come of this, but neither is there any benefit.
</p>

<p>
Having prepared your .c and .h files as described above, you can
cause makeheaders to generate its .h files using the following simple
command:

<pre>
   makeheaders *.[ch]
</pre>

The makeheaders program will scan all of the .c files and all of the
manually written .h files and then automatically generate .h files
corresponding to all .c files.
</p>

<p>
Note that
the wildcard expression used in the above example,
&#8220;<code>*.[ch]</code>&#8221;,
will expand to include all .h files in the current directory, both
those entered manually be the programmer and others generated automatically
by a prior run of makeheaders.
But that is not a problem.
The makeheaders program will recognize and ignore any files it
has previously generated that show up on its input list.
</p>

<a name="H0008"></a>
<h3>3.2 What Declarations Get Copied</h3>

<p>
The following list details all of the code constructs that makeheaders
will extract and place in
the automatically generated .h files:
</p>

<ul>
<p><li>
When a function is defined in any .c file, a prototype of that function
is placed in the generated .h file of every .c file that
calls the function.</p>

<P>If the &#8220;<code>static</code>&#8221; keyword of C appears at the
beginning of the function definition, the prototype is suppressed.
If you use the &#8220;<code>LOCAL</code>&#8221; keyword where you would normally
say &#8220;<code>static</code>&#8221;, then a prototype is generated, but it
will only appear in the single header file that corresponds to the
source file containing the function.  For example, if the file
<code>alpha.c</code> contains the following:
<pre>
  LOCAL int testFunc(void){
    return 0;
  }
</pre>
Then the header file <code>alpha.h</code> will contain
<pre>
  #define LOCAL static
  LOCAL int testFunc(void);
</pre>
However, no other generated header files will contain a prototype for
<code>testFunc()</code> since the function has only file scope.</p>

<p>When the &#8220;<code>LOCAL</code>&#8221; keyword is used, makeheaders will
also generate a #define for LOCAL, like this:
<pre>
   #define LOCAL static
</pre>
so that the C compiler will know what it means.</p>

<p>If you invoke makeheaders with a &#8220;<code>-local</code>&#8221;
command-line option, then it treats the &#8220;<code>static</code>&#8221;
keyword like &#8220;<code>LOCAL</code>&#8221; and generates prototypes in the
header file that corresponds to the source file containing the function
definition.</p>

<p><li>
When a global variable is defined in a .c file, an
&#8220;<code>extern</code>&#8221;
declaration of that variable is placed in the header of every
.c file that uses the variable.
</p>

<p><li>
When a structure, union or enumeration declaration or a
function prototype or a C++ class declaration appears in a
manually produced .h file, that declaration is copied into the
automatically generated
.h files of all .c files that use the structure, union, enumeration,
function or class.
But declarations that appear in a
.c file are considered private to that .c file and are not copied into
any automatically generated files.
</p>

<p><li>
All #defines and typedefs that appear in manually produced .h files
are copied into automatically generated .h files as needed.
Similar constructs that appear in .c files are considered private to
those files and are not copied.
</p>

<p><li>
When a structure, union or enumeration declaration appears in a .h
file, makeheaders will automatically
generate a typedef that allows the declaration to be referenced without
the &#8220;<code>struct</code>&#8221;, &#8220;<code>union</code>&#8221; or
&#8220;<code>enum</code>&#8221; qualifier.
In other words, if makeheaders sees the code:
<pre>
  struct Examp { /* ... */ };
</pre>
it will automatically generate a corresponding typedef like this:
<pre>
  typedef struct Examp Examp;
</pre>
</p>

<p><li>
Makeheaders generates an error message if it encounters a function or
variable definition within a .h file.
The .h files are supposed to contain only interface, not implementation.
C compilers will not enforce this convention, but makeheaders does.
</ul>

<p>
As a final note, we observe that automatically generated declarations
are ordered as required by the ANSI-C programming language.
If the declaration of some structure &#8220;<code>X</code>&#8221; requires a
prior declaration of another structure &#8220;<code>Y</code>&#8221;, then Y will
appear first in the generated headers.
</p>

<a name="H0009"></a>
<h3>3.3 How To Avoid Having To Write Any Header Files</h3>

<p>
In my experience, large projects work better if all of the manually
written code is placed in .c files and all .h files are generated
automatically.
This is slightly different from the traditional C method of placing
the interface in .h files and the implementation in .c files, but
it is a refreshing change that brings a noticeable improvement to the
coding experience.
Others, I believe, share this view since I've
noticed recent languages (ex: java, tcl, perl, awk) tend to
support the one-file approach to coding as the only option.
</p>

<p>
The makeheaders program supports putting both
interface and implementation into the same source file.
But you do have to tell makeheaders which part of the source file is the
interface and which part is the implementation.
Makeheaders has to know this in order to be able to figure out whether or
not structures declarations, typedefs, #defines and so forth should
be copied into the generated headers of other source files.
</p>

<p>
You can instruct makeheaders to treat any part of a .c file as if
it were a .h file by enclosing that part of the .c file within:
<pre>
   #if INTERFACE
   #endif
</pre>
Thus any structure definitions that appear after the
&#8220;<code>#if INTERFACE</code>&#8221; but before the corresponding
&#8220;<code>#endif</code>&#8221; are eligible to be copied into the
automatically generated
.h files of other .c files.
</p>

<p>
If you use the &#8220;<code>#if INTERFACE</code>&#8221; mechanism in a .c file,
then the generated header for that .c file will contain a line
like this:
<pre>
   #define INTERFACE 0
</pre>
In other words, the C compiler will never see any of the text that
defines the interface.
But makeheaders will copy all necessary definitions and declarations
into the .h file it generates, so .c files will compile as if the
declarations were really there.
This approach has the advantage that you don't have to worry with
putting the declarations in the correct ANSI-C order -- makeheaders
will do that for you automatically.
</p>

<p>
Note that you don't have to use this approach exclusively.
You can put some declarations in .h files and others within the
&#8220;<code>#if INTERFACE</code>&#8221; regions of .c files.
Makeheaders treats all declarations alike, no matter where they
come from.
You should also note that a single .c file can contain as many
&#8220;<code>#if INTERFACE</code>&#8221; regions as desired.
</p>

<a name="H0010"></a>
<h3>3.4 Designating Declarations For Export</h3>

<p>
In a large project, one will often construct a hierarchy of
interfaces.
For example, you may have a group of 20 or so files that form
a library used in several other parts of the system.
Each file in this library will present two interfaces.
One interface will be the routines and data structures it is
willing to share with other files in the same library, and the
second interface is those routines and data structures it wishes
to make available to other subsystems.
(The second interface is normally a subset of the first.)
Ordinary C does not provide support for a tiered interface
like this, but makeheaders does.
</p>

<p>
Using makeheaders, it is possible to designate routines and data
structures as being for &#8220;<code>export</code>&#8221;.
Exported objects are visible not only to other files within the
same library or subassembly but also to other
libraries and subassemblies in the larger program.
By default, makeheaders only makes objects visible to other members
of the same library.
</p>

<p>
That isn't the complete truth, actually.
The semantics of C are such that once an object becomes visible
outside of a single source file, it is also visible to any user
of the library that is made from the source file.
Makeheaders can not prevent outsiders from using non-exported resources,
but it can discourage the practice by refusing to provide prototypes
and declarations for the services it does not want to export.
Thus the only real effect of the making an object exportable is
to include it in the output makeheaders generates when it is run
using the -H command line option.
This is not a perfect solution, but it works well in practice.
</p>

<p>
But trouble quickly arises when we attempt to devise a mechanism for
telling makeheaders which prototypes it should export and which it should
keep local.
The built-in &#8220;<code>static</code>&#8221; keyword of C works well for
prohibiting prototypes from leaving a single source file, but because C doesn't
support a linkage hierarchy, there is nothing in the C language to help us.
We'll have to invite our own keyword: &#8220;<code>EXPORT</code>&#8221;
</p>

<p>
Makeheaders allows the EXPORT keyword to precede any function or
procedure definition.
The routine following the EXPORT keyword is then eligable to appear
in the header file generated using the -H command line option.
Note that if a .c file contains the EXPORT keyword, makeheaders will
put the macro
<pre>
   #define EXPORT
</pre>
in the header file it generates for the .c file so that the EXPORT keyword
will never be seen by the C compiler.
</p>

<p>
But the EXPORT keyword only works for function and procedure definitions.
For structure, union and enum definitions, typedefs, #defines and
class declarations, a second mechanism is used.
Just as any declarations or definition contained within
<pre>
   #if INTERFACE
   #endif
</pre>
are visible to all files within the library, any declarations
or definitions within
<pre>
   #if EXPORT_INTERFACE
   #endif
</pre>
will become part of the exported interface.
The &#8220;<code>#if EXPORT_INTERFACE</code>&#8221; mechanism can be used in
either .c or .h files.
(The &#8220;<code>#if INTERFACE</code>&#8221; can also be used in both .h and
.c files, but since it's use in a .h file would be redundant, we haven't
mentioned it before.)
</p>

<a name="H0011"></a>
<h3>3.5 Local declarations processed by makeheaders</h3>

<p>
Structure declarations and typedefs that appear in .c files are normally
ignored by makeheaders.
Such declarations are only intended for use by the source file in which
they appear and so makeheaders doesn't need to copy them into any
generated header files.
We call such declarations &#8220;<code>private</code>&#8221;.
</p>

<p>
Sometimes it is convenient to have makeheaders sort a sequence
of private declarations into the correct order for us automatically.
Or, we could have static functions and procedures for which we would like
makeheaders to generate prototypes, but the arguments to these
functions and procedures uses private declarations.
In both of these cases, we want makeheaders to be aware of the
private declarations and copy them into the local header file,
but we don't want makeheaders to propagate the
declarations outside of the file in which they are declared.
</p>

<p>
When this situation arises, enclose the private declarations
within
<pre>
  #if LOCAL_INTERFACE
  #endif
</pre>
A &#8220;<code>LOCAL_INTERFACE</code>&#8221; block works very much like the
&#8220;<code>INTERFACE</code>&#8221; and
&#8220;<code>EXPORT_INTERFACE</code>&#8221;
blocks described above, except that makeheaders insures that the
objects declared in a LOCAL_INTERFACE are only visible to the
file containing the LOCAL_INTERFACE.
</p>

<a name="H0012"></a>
<h3>3.6 Using Makeheaders With C++ Code</h3>

<p>
You can use makeheaders to generate header files for C++ code, in
addition to C.
Makeheaders will recognize and copy both &#8220;<code>class</code>&#8221;
declarations
and inline function definitions, and it knows not to try to generate
prototypes for methods.
</p>

<p>
In fact, makeheaders is smart enough to be used in projects that employ
a mixture of C and C++.
For example, if a C function is called from within a C++ code module,
makeheaders will know to prepend the text
<pre>
   extern "C"
</pre>
to the prototype for that function in the C++ header file.
Going the other way,
if you try to call a C++ function from within C, an
appropriate error message is issued, since C++ routines can not
normally be called by C code (due to fact that most C++ compilers
use name mangling to facilitate type-safe linkage.)
</p>

<p>
No special command-line options are required to use makeheaders with
C++ input.  Makeheaders will recognize that its source code is C++
by the suffix on the source code filename.  Simple ".c" or ".h" suffixes
are assumed to be ANSI-C.  Anything else, including ".cc", ".C" and
".cpp" is assumed to be C++.
The name of the header file generated by makeheaders is derived from
the name of the source file by converting every "c" to "h" and
every "C" to "H" in the suffix of the filename.
Thus the C++ source
file &#8220;<code>alpha.cpp</code>&#8221; will induce makeheaders to
generate a header file named &#8220;<code>alpha.hpp</code>&#8221;.
</p>

<p>
Makeheaders augments class definitions by inserting prototypes to
methods where appropriate.  If a method definition begins with one
of the special keywords <b>PUBLIC</b>, <b>PROTECTED</b>, or
<b>PRIVATE</b> (in upper-case to distinguish them from the regular
C++ keywords with the same meaning) then a prototype for that
method will be inserted into the class definition.  If none of
these keywords appear, then the prototype is not inserted.  For
example, in the following code, the constructor is not explicitly
declared in the class definition but makeheaders will add it there
because of the PUBLIC keyword that appears before the constructor
definition.
</p>

<blockquote><pre>
#if INTERFACE
class Example1 {
private:
  int v1;
};
#endif
PUBLIC Example1::Example1(){
  v1 = 0;
}
</pre></blockquote>

<p>
The code above is equivalent to the following:
</p>

<blockquote><pre>
#if INTERFACE
class Example1 {
private:
  int v1;
public:
  Example1();
};
#endif
Example1::Example1(){
  v1 = 0;
}
</pre></blockquote>

<p>
The first form is preferred because only a single declaration of
the constructor is required.  The second form requires two declarations,
one in the class definition and one on the definition of the constructor.
</p>

<h4>3.6.1 C++ Limitations</h4>

<p>
Makeheaders does not understand more recent
C++ syntax such as templates and namespaces.
Perhaps these issues will be addressed in future revisions.
</p>

<a name="H0013"></a>
<h3>3.7 Conditional Compilation</h3>

<p>
The makeheaders program understands and tracks the conditional
compilation constructs in the source code files it scans.
Hence, if the following code appears in a source file
<pre>
  #ifdef UNIX
  #  define WORKS_WELL 1
  #else
  #  define WORKS_WELL 0
  #endif
</pre>
then the next patch of code will appear in the generated header for
every .c file that uses the WORKS_WELL constant:
<pre>
  #if defined(UNIX)
  #  define WORKS_WELL 1
  #endif
  #if !defined(UNIX)
  #  define WORKS_WELL 0
  #endif
</pre>
The conditional compilation constructs can be nested to any depth.
Makeheaders also recognizes the special case of
<pre>
  #if 0
  #endif
</pre>
and treats the enclosed text as a comment.
</p>

<a name="H0014"></a>
<h3>3.8 Caveats</h3>

<p>
The makeheaders system is designed to be robust
but it is possible for a devious programmer to fool the system,
usually with unhelpful consequences.
This subsection is a guide to helping you avoid trouble.
</p>

<p>
Makeheaders does not understand the old K&amp;R style of function
and procedure definitions.
It only understands the modern ANSI-C style, and will probably
become very confused if it encounters an old K&amp;R function.
Therefore you should take care to avoid putting K&amp;R function definitions
in your code.
</p>

<p>
Makeheaders does not understand when you define more than one
global variable with the same type separated by a comma.
In other words, makeheaders does not understand this:
<pre>
   int a = 4, b = 5;
</pre>
The makeheaders program wants every variable to have its own
definition.  Like this:
<pre>
   int a = 4;
   int b = 5;
</pre>
Notice that this applies to global variables only, not to variables
you declare inside your functions.
Since global variables ought to be exceedingly rare, and since it is
good style to declare them separately anyhow, this restriction is
not seen as a terrible hardship.
</p>

<p>
Makeheaders does not support defining an enumerated or aggregate type in
the same statement as a variable declaration.  None of the following
statements work completely:
<pre>
struct {int field;} a;
struct Tag {int field;} b;
struct Tag c;
</pre>
Instead, define types separately from variables:
<pre>
#if INTERFACE
struct Tag {int field;};
#endif
Tag a;
Tag b; /* No more than one variable per declaration. */
Tag c; /* So must put each on its own line. */
</pre>
See <a href="#H0008">3.2 What Declarations Get Copied</a> for details,
including on the automatic typedef.
</p>

<p>
The makeheaders program processes its source file prior to sending
those files through the C preprocessor.
Hence, if you hide important structure information in preprocessor defines,
makeheaders might not be able to successfully extract the information
it needs from variables, functions and procedure definitions.
For example, if you write this:
<pre>
  #define BEGIN {
  #define END }
</pre>
at the beginning of your source file, and then try to create a function
definition like this:
<pre>
  char *StrDup(const char *zSrc)
    BEGIN
      /* Code here */
    END
</pre>
then makeheaders won't be able to find the end of the function definition
and bad things are likely to happen.
</p>

<p>
For most projects the code constructs that makeheaders cannot
handle are very rare.
As long as you avoid excessive cleverness, makeheaders will
probably be able to figure out what you want and will do the right
thing.
</p>

<p>
Makeheaders has limited understanding of enums.  In particular, it does
not realize the significance of enumerated values, so the enum is not
emitted in the header files when its enumerated values are used unless
the name associated with the enum is also used.  Moreover, enums can be
completely anonymous, e.g. &#8220;<code>enum {X, Y, Z};</code>&#8221;.
Makeheaders ignores such enums so they can at least be used within a
single source file.  Makeheaders expects you to use #define constants
instead.  If you want enum features that #define lacks, and you need the
enum in the interface, bypass makeheaders and write a header file by
hand, or teach makeheaders to emit the enum definition when any of the
enumerated values are used, rather than only when the top-level name (if
any) is used.
</p>

<a name="H0015"></a>
<h2>4.0 Using Makeheaders To Generate Documentation</h2>

<p>
Many people have observed the advantages of generating program
documentation directly from the source code:
<ul>
<li> Less effort is involved.  It is easier to write a program than
     it is to write a program and a document.
<li> The documentation is more likely to agree with the code.
     When documentation is derived directly from the code, or is
     contained in comments immediately adjacent to the code, it is much
     more likely to be correct than if it is contained in a separate
     unrelated file in a different part of the source tree.
<li> Information is kept in only one place.  When a change occurs
     in the code, it is not necessary to make a corresponding change
     in a separate document.  Just rerun the documentation generator.
</ul>
The makeheaders program does not generate program documentation itself.
But you can use makeheaders to parse the program source code, extract
the information that is relevant to the documentation and to pass this
information to another tool to do the actual documentation preparation.
</p>

<p>
When makeheaders is run with the &#8220;<code>-doc</code>&#8221; option, it
emits no header files at all.
Instead, it does a complete dump of its internal tables to standard
output in a form that is easily parsed.
This output can then be used by another program (the implementation
of which is left as an exercise to the reader) that will use the
information to prepare suitable documentation.
</p>

<p>
The &#8220;<code>-doc</code>&#8221; option causes makeheaders to print
information to standard output about all of the following objects:
<ul>
<li> C++ class declarations
<li> Structure and union declarations
<li> Enumerations
<li> Typedefs
<li> Procedure and function definitions
<li> Global variables
<li> Preprocessor macros (ex: &#8220;<code>#define</code>&#8221;)
</ul>
For each of these objects, the following information is output:
<ul>
<li> The name of the object.
<li> The type of the object.  (Structure, typedef, macro, etc.)
<li> Flags to indicate if the declaration is exported (contained within
     an EXPORT_INTERFACE block) or local (contained with LOCAL_INTERFACE).
<li> A flag to indicate if the object is declared in a C++ file.
<li> The name of the file in which the object was declared.
<li> The complete text of any block comment that precedes the declarations.
<li> If the declaration occurred inside a preprocessor conditional
     (&#8220;<code>#if</code>&#8221;) then the text of that conditional is
     provided.
<li> The complete text of a declaration for the object.
</ul>
The exact output format will not be described here.
It is simple to understand and parse and should be obvious to
anyone who inspects some sample output.
</p>

<a name="H0016"></a>
<h2>5.0 Compiling The Makeheaders Program</h2>

<p>
The source code for makeheaders is a single file of ANSI-C code,
approximately 3000 lines in length.
The program makes only modest demands of the system and C library
and should compile without alteration on most ANSI C compilers
and on most operating systems.
It is known to compile using several variations of GCC for Unix
as well as Cygwin32 and MSVC 5.0 for Win32.
</p>

<a name="H0017"></a>
<h2>6.0 History</h2>

<p>
The makeheaders program was first written by D. Richard Hipp
(also the original author of
<a href="https://sqlite.org/">SQLite</a> and
<a href="https://fossil-scm.org/">Fossil</a>) in 1993.
Hipp open-sourced the project immediately, but it never caught
on with any other developers and it continued to be used mostly
by Hipp himself for over a decade.  When Hipp was first writing
the Fossil version control system in 2006 and 2007, he used
makeheaders on that project to help simplify the source code.
As the popularity of Fossil increased, the makeheaders
that was incorporated into the Fossil source tree became the
"official" makeheaders implementation.
</p>

<p>
As this paragraph is being composed (2016-11-05), Fossil is the
only project known to Hipp that is still using makeheaders.  On
the other hand, makeheaders has served the Fossil project well and
there are no plans remove it.
</p>

<a name="H0018"></a>
<h2>7.0 Summary And Conclusion</h2>

<p>
The makeheaders program will automatically generate a minimal header file
for each of a set of C source and header files, and will
generate a composite header file for the entire source file suite,
for either internal or external use.
It can also be used as the parser in an automated program
documentation system.
</p>

<p>
The makeheaders program has been in use since 1994,
in a wide variety of projects under both UNIX and Win32.
In every project where it has been used, makeheaders has proven
to be a very helpful aid
in the construction and maintenance of large C codes.
In at least two cases, makeheaders has facilitated development
of programs that would have otherwise been all but impossible
due to their size and complexity.
</p>
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